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Revision as of 19:55, 29 August 2020
, 19:55, 29 August 2020no edit summary
The scorpion of the title is a slightly deranged war drone that mysteriously and rather ominously appears to Cormac at certain points in his life. Asher keeps you guessing right until the end as to the significance of this character.
Of all Asher's novels, this one is notable for the absence of a constantly switching perspective or a bewildering number of characters; the focus stays with Cormac. Clearly some character development is going on here! The action is on a much smaller scale and the body count is certainly lower. People do die, but in more manageable amounts and on the whole, their deaths are given their emotional weight. A certain restraint is employed. If you have read any books by Neal Asher, you may already be familiar with Ian Cormac, but how well do you really know him? In ''Shadow of the Scorpion'' we see a vulnerable side of him before he becomes the enigmatic hero of the Polity. Young Cormac is a likable likeable character with a sense of honesty and morality which help him swiftly come to terms with that job requirement of killing the bad guys.
The novel manages to raise some interesting points about what it means to be human in a society where the lines between man and machine have blurred: robots are capable of emulating emotions and humans may be technologically augmented and live indefinitely. When it is possible to have traumatic memories erased from the human brain, the novel questions the wisdom of doing so and suggests that memories and pain shape our psyche…Hmmm, perhaps I am reading too much into it; it's not a novel that will stay with you after you've read it but it is enjoyable and rather compelling in its own way. Cormac is a believable character and Asher clearly has a sense of humour.
